Transport Layer Security and its predecessor Secure Socket Layer provides network security and finds widespread use is applications such as content delivery networks CDN, web servers and VPN. TLS provides both privacy and integrity of data exchanged over a network. TLS is primarily used with reliable transport protocol such as TCP, however it is also implemented with datagram oriented transport protocol and termed datagram transport layer security DTLS.
A Network Interface Controller (NIC)—which may be, for example, network interface circuitry, such as on a PCI card connected to a host computer via a PCI host bus—is typically used to couple the host CPU to a packet network through at least one interface, called a port. NIC circuitry has been an area of rapid development as advanced packet processing functionality and protocol offload have become requirements for so called “smart NICs”.
In conventional systems/methods, when encryption is used, the encryption is performed on the application data, prior to forming segments for communication across a network. Such systems/methods introduce latency associated with transmitting such encrypted application data.